Why was Jeff Lacy so overrated?

Very very few american boxing fans in the 80's and 90's and beyond, bothered to watch the foreign fighters. They waited for them to be shown on HBO or Showtime. Let alone watching their development. Hardly anyone I knew did what I was doing and sending away for vhs tapes of these guys. It was quite an expense and there were quite a few non-americans doing well and fighting regularly.

So what happens is resorting to reading the boxing magazines for results or at best, getting flash and boxing update in the mail for far quicker results. And just watching what HBO/Showtime/DKP/Arum/Cedric Kushner were showing in the U.S. But not doing what I'd call digging. And certainly not digging deep.

So they'd see a guy like Lacy 5x and, at best, Calzaghe once. But if you'd bother to watch both guys' development & not just one of them, it was simple to see Lacy was going to have a ton of problems. An absolute ton and why would you think his toolchest was anywhere close to being deep enough? That kind of thing happened a lot, though.

It made it nice for gambling though. And lots of odds are based on popularity anyway.

 

Jeff "Left Hook" Lacy was powerfully built, exciting fighter with good punching power, plenty of heart and the ability to take a good punch. But it appeared that he was far too easy to hit and could never learn certain basic boxing skills. As a result, Lacy was cruelly exposed and took a tremendous beating when facing Joe Calzaghe in a bout that went the distance. I still can't understand why Lacy's corner did not make an effort to get that bout stopped in an earlier round. After that bout, Lacy wasn't the same and continued to take some beatings in other bouts.

- Chuck Johnston

 

I was watching this fight the other night, and my wife who does not like boxing (but was paying attention) said (round 9): he just won’t quit. Why doesn’t the ref stop it. My thought was if I was his corner I would have.

But Calzaghe was asked that post fight if Jeff’s team should have? He replied no that Lacy was a warrior and that if he was in that spot he wouldn’t want someone stopping it.

 

lol. Not sure what American fans had been watching up to that point with regards to Calzaghe. The only fight he ever had that even been remotely debatable was the fight with Robin Reid. Every other fight he'd either knocked them out (when his hands were fine) or beaten then comfortably on points.


Sven Ottke on the other hand...the less said about his "victories" the better.

 

Calzaghe got plenty of coverage on Showtime before he foight Lacy.

 

People make better historians than prophets.

This is bad for gamblers, but good for Classic research.

 

I dont think Lacy was at all over hyped . I would say that Calzague is under appreciated !

If Lacy did not fight Joe he would have blasted out all the other SMWs and LHs at the time

My point being that is now overlooked Joe did not just win the fight . Joe took the life out of Lacy .
Fortunately nobody got physically hurt but Lacy was wrecked for life . Joe took his soul !

In my view this clinical dissection of Jeff Lacy was the most important fight we have seen in this country in recent years

 

I think the last Joe Calzaghe fight Showtime televised before the Lacy fight was Calzaghe-Byron Mitchell.

Mitchell had been beaten by Sven Ottke in his previous fight. Calzaghe started strong. In the second, Mitchell floored Calzaghe hard. Joe looked hurt, but managed to catch Mitchell and drop him. Then you could see Joe, while throwing punches, look to the ref for help. And a moment or so later, the ref stopped the fight. It was considered at the time a "British stoppage."

This content is protected

Whatever had happened previously in Lacy's fights, he hadn't been in trouble like Calzaghe had been in that match. And while Lacy hadn't won a gold medal in the Olympics or anything, neither had Calzaghe. Lacy actually had a FAR better amateur record than Calzaghe did.

In fact, the level of competition in Calzaghe and Ottke's early reigns wasn't much different. Ottke had beaten Mitchell and Charles Brewer (twice) and Glen Johnson and Thomas Tate and Anthony Mundine. And Ottke had been the better amateur (engaging in close to 300 amateur fights compared to Calzaghe's roughly 100). And Ottke had more belts.

Calzaghe really didn't start to separate himself until he beat Lacy and continued moving up.

The Calzaghe win over Lacy was unexpected. So was Calzaghe's rise to Hall of Fame status. But that's why they fight the fights, and don't just say someone looks better on paper so he wins.

 

We know Lacy wouldn’t have blasted through 168 and 175. Ward, Froch, and Kessler were around.

 

but get stopped by a shot 40something before he did that, of course.

 

Well that was 3 years after Calzaghe.

 

in his prime yeh, thats irrelevant.

 

No NO No you misunderstand my point

Lacy would be unbeaten if he had not fought Calzague This is what I mean when I say completely took his soul

Lacy was totaly demoralized there was no life left in him as far as being a pro fighter . Even my nan could have took him out

 

Pretty much following the points already made.

I liked Lacy a lot back then as he looked fantastic and had a pleasing KO style. He was unbeaten and was fighting some quality opposition (admittedly no top of the pack fighters). He was getting hype on the tv shows and in the Ring Magazine as well.

Calzaghe was an unknown quantity. Who had he beaten?

On the day, what we saw was a boxer beating a puncher. What more, it was a quality boxer beating an ordinary puncher. No chance for the puncher.

Lacy was never the same again, bad shoulder, loss of confidence, changed from Dan Birmingham. Different man. I saw one of his recent fights and he was totally done.

Hindsight is very much 20/20 as I am sure all long-time fans have loved certain fighters and then after their downfall, they have used hindsight to say that they knew it all along and how clear it was that the fighter was not as great as others said.

 

That wasn't his prime though.

The Calzague fight and the shoulder surgery is what ruined Lacy.